Crete, Greece
Our original plans were to travel to Turkey for 10 days which was a trip we postponed from May. However, Turkey still remains on the red list which means we would have to pay for hotel quarantine coming back to the UK - not an ideal plan. Greece seemed liked the place to go this summer as we hadn’t been in three years and they were welcoming vaccinated travellers with open arms. Not to mention the food, warm water, endless sunshine and culture that comes with the country itself!
Friday 27th August 2021
Someone clearly forgot that early morning flights are rather unpleasant when they booked an 8am departure from Gatwick Airport to Chania, Crete. It all sounds well and good until your alarm is set for 3.50am to ensure you get there 2 hours before your flight (for any extra covid precautions/checks that may need to be made) and the journey out to the airport itself. The last international flight we had taken was from our hometown of Christchurch, NZ where mum and dad drove me 10 minutes down the road from our house to the international terminal…no wonder I thought 8am was grand.
We walked to the night bus stop which would take us to Victoria Train Station. Even the tube doesn’t run at this time of morning but thankfully the National Rail trains are which only take 30 minutes to reach the airport. We felt a little dazed as we turned up to the airport very early in the morning and because we are a bit out of practice at this travel thing. Checking in was no issue as we brought our own bag scale (best thing we have purchased!) which means you don’t have a crazy offload of items when you realise your 6kg over and do you really need that extra pair of shoes? Clearly I speak from past experiences here.
In terms of covid rules before we were allowed to get rid of our bags an Easyjet staff member checked our covid vaccine status, our passenger locator form for Greece, our boarding passes and our passports. They then gave us this little piece of paper to show at the boarding gate to say we had the necessary checks done.
The airport was rather busy for this time of the morning but it is a bank holiday weekend here in the UK. We grabbed some snacks from Pret since its a long 4 hour flight and everything went smoothly as we boarded and left on time. Landing in Greece the heat and sunshine hit us as we stepped out of the plane. Man had we missed this feeling, we often do this multiple times a month all year round. The UK has had one of the most depressingly cold and miserable summers we have ever had since we moved here. At the airport we went through customs, then a couple of police officers checked our passenger locator forms before we were allowed to collect our bag. They were randomly selecting passengers to have a lateral flow test done and I have to admit I was petrified I would be one of them….and I would come back positive….and we would be locked up in a hotel in Greece for 10 days. Perhaps I have some PTSD from our NZ trip? Safe to say when we got into the taxi waiting for us I felt an overwhelming sense of relief we were here!!
Chaina
Chania is a gorgeous waterfront city on the Northwest coast of the Greek Island of Crete. It is famous for its Venetian harbour where multicolour buildings intertwine with balcony’s, windows, bright colour flowers and many bars + restaurants overlooking the clear blue water. We were recommended to come here by numerous friends who raved about the atmosphere of the city, how walkable it is and how accesible some of the most incredible beaches are!
How to get from the airport to downtown?
The local bus which costs €2.30pp (when we took this it was direct to the city station)
Grab a taxi which cost us €27 (make sure you have cash as not all taxis take card)
Hire your own car
Once we were dropped off at our airbnb we settled in before making our way down to spot our first glimpse of Old Town and the water! It was a toasty 33 degrees and we were absolutely melting. We grabbed some gelato from a place called ‘Lets Spoon’ and wandered the lanes of old town until we came across as beach called Koum Kapi where a small inch of beach was visible - enough space to leave our bags behind and have our first swim in the salty, blue Mediterranean ocean. After a swim we dried off before making our way to a restaurant called “Pulse” which serves vegan cuisine and honestly has the BEST meze platters. We were so full after I went straight to dessert and called it a night. We wandered back to our Airbnb through the beautifully lit up small lanes of the old town with many shops open and restaurants full of people. We always get excited seeing this and think about how much our parents would love to come here someday when they are allowed out of NZ. I always think that we are travelling not just for us but so we can experience many places and send them back to our favourites.
Saturday 28th August
Wow what a sleep in, we were clearly tired after such a big day getting to Crete plus the two hour time difference that lead us to wake up around 11am Greek time. The best thing about being on holiday is that it doesn’t matter nor do you want to be at the beach from 8am! We caught up with my parents before walking to a beach called Nea Chora which is a short walk around the bay from old town. We swum, read our books and sunbathed until 5pm when our lack of snacks made us go hunting for food. Since we were close to the same place we went to last night - Pulse we decided to go back and ordered the other meze platter which was slightly different to last nights one with pesto polenta, giant bean stew and falafel. It was super good value for money as well at €12.50 ($20.80 nzd). That was all I needed for dinner along with a smoothie, although we originally planned this to be a starter and that we would carry on elsewhere for the rest of dinner! We were tired and salty so decided to make our way back home once again through the beautiful old town. Our Airbnb is about a 25 minute walk out which feels a little bit of a hike when its stinking hot but ultimately it hasn’t been the end of the world as it saved us a lot of money. If we sent friends back I would look into the area around Pulse as there was a gorgeous few quiet lanes with loads of accommodation. You are close enough but also far enough away from old town, although it might be harder if you had a car.
Sunday 29th August
It was another slow start to the day as we got lost in the scroll hole of running buggies for children. We have some friends who have recently moved back to NZ and are expecting a baby so they have many recommendations as to what we should invest in before we leave London. NZ seems to be lacking in a few areas as to brands you can get hold of and second hand availability. So it may be that it is cheaper to purchase it in London and ship it back. Its just food for thought and nothing we are planning on acting on anytime soon since we haven’t decided when we are moving home just yet - its a little too hard to get into the country right now especially with it being in lockdown with a Delta outbreak.
Todays plans were to walk even further around to a beautiful beach called Agii Apostoli which is a sandy sheltered beach an hours walk from our Airbnb. We stopped off at a sushi place called “Koi sushi bar” on the way as it was 1pm and no doubt there wouldn’t be many food options at the beach. We hadn’t found a well stocked supermarket yet which would allow us to gather some snacks. This beach was by far our favourite so far as the water was incredibly clear and blue with lots of soft sand. We had purchased some new eco friendly sandals from "‘Gumbies’ purely to get into the water as when we came to Greece last time it was mostly rocky beaches. But everything we had found so far was lovely and sandy! We stayed here until 5pm and then found a close by bus stop that was heading back into town. It cost us €2 ($3.30 nzd) on the bus and they took cash on board which was super handy. Before we knew it we were back in town and able to walk up to our airbnb to shower and get ready to come back into town.
A lot of people were choosing Greece as their summer holiday destination including 3 other couple friends of ours. We had planned to meet up with Jonty & Hana as they were based in Chania as well. In the middle of the town square we decided where we would head for dinner and wandered though the lanes of the old town until a place called ‘Enetikon’ had a seat for four outside. We ordered some starters and I jumped straight to the marinated anchovies! It’s my fav go to especially when we are in a place like Greece where I hope fishing is done more through local fishermen rather than deep sea trawlers. Then dinner was the catch of the day, don’t ask me what the actual fish’s name was but Lew & I were sold on the fact that it came with potatoes and salad. The fish was indeed whole cooked which always is a bit of a mission with bones. The only issue with Europe is when you sit outside people also smoke and eat which is the most unpleasant thing for non smokers. I think I inhaled about 6 cigarettes of second hand smoke whilst we were eating dinner which is always super disgusting and it made me quite wheezy and cough a lot this time around since i’m still recovering from something I picked up from the snotty children at work. The joys of being a paeds nurse that many people have warned me about!
Post dinner we grabbed some frozen yogurt/sorbet and wandered around the waterfront listening to the buskers and people watching. It was almost midnight on a Sunday night and the city was so busy with people just sitting down to eat dinner or enjoying the waterfront with a beverage in hand. My favourite thing about summer in Europe is just how warm it is at night time and you don’t ever have to carry a jacket with you!
Monday 30th August
Happy August Bank Holiday UK! We were reflecting today on where we had been on this weekend since we arrived in London. In 2018 we were in Kefalonia- Greece, 2019 The Lakes District- UK , 2020 Lake Como - Italy and this year Crete! We always make sure we book something on these long weekends and often take a day either side to make the most of it with Lews leave. I can take as much as I like being a contract worker which is so helpful for being flexible and travelling!
This morning was a little different to the last mornings. We had the mission today of getting back out to the airport to pick up a car for the rest of the trip. Instead of paying a lot for another taxi back out there we decided to give the bus a go since we weren’t carting luggage around. The online timetable is very confusing and we had also been told its a slow 90 minute journey from Chania central to the airport. We wandered down to the bus station in town which was super easy to find, had a toilet and a place you could buy a ticket. We got a ticket for the 10am bus which cost is €2.30pp ($3.80 nzd) and it drove directly to the airport to our surprise! We rented a car with Thrifty which was a Hyundai I10 which was super tiny but perfect for these roads here where parking is tight and the locals drive like crazy people. The plan was to head to a couple of beaches out this way - Seitan Limania & Marathi Beach. We rerouted ourselves via a supermarket so we could grab some snacks for the rest of the day.
Seitan Limania
This place is on most peoples to do lists as its absolutely stunning and rather instagram worthy which is probably how it became so overrun with people. The drive in is very steep with lots of switch backs with a small carpark down the bottom so most people end up parking up one side of the road. Thats not even the hardest part. You get a gorgeous view of the blue water in the white channel below but you need to make it down the steep, rocky pathway to get to the actual beach. Most people with families turn around right here. It’s totally fine if you have the right shoes and take it slowly. Lew and I had no issues with the eco-friendly off road looking sandals he had purchased for us as ugly as I initially thought they were. We took everything down with us thinking we would be there all afternoon so we had a lot to carry including a sun umbrella. If anything make sure you bring one of these as there is not a single bit of shade. Once your down on the beach you can see how insanely pretty the blue water with the white sand although the actual beach is white rock. We arrived at about midday so the beach was absolutely packed. Lew also didn’t like the posing “insta” couples as he calls them but I couldn’t care less! We set up camp in the radius just a little bigger than our umbrella, changed and got straight into the water. There are some rocks on the side you can climb up and jump off which is what Lew ended up doing. The beach is also famous for its large amount of goats that pop on down from the high cliffs to eat your pastries and crackers you carried in. They arnt interested in your fruits but purely the things that they be shouldn’t be eating and maybe you shouldn’t be either? Perhaps they think they are taking one for the team!
Marathi Beach
Once we left Seitan Limania we carried on back to a cute beach called Marathi Beach which was far more our vibe with its golden sand, less crowds and space. Loads of families were based here so its clearly got great swimming for kids especially if you bring a pair of goggles to check out the cute fish scrounging around on the sea floor. It was also the perfect place for Lew to get his swimming done for the day. Its been far too hot to run so hes taking up swimming everyday between 1-2km since the Berlin marathon is less than a month away now. Theres a bit of a friendly competition happening between him and our other friends in the Greek Islands now on who can swim the furthest everyday since they all usually compete on how far they run in a week. Anyways back to the beach! Highly recommend this cute one. Its close to the airport as well so we got to see a few fighter jets out training which is always fascinating to watch!
At the end of the day we drove back to town and was able to park our car up right outside the house since we decided to stay further away from the main city. We showered and then wandered into town for dinner just as the sun was beginning to set. It’s such a rich red sunset here and the way it bounces off the buildings is just magical. Dinner was at a vegetarian place called ‘To Stachi’ which was hands down the best food we had all trip! They so easily made a lot of the meals vegan as well by using almond milk so I finally got to try the local dish moussaka and Lew had the pastitsio which is a Greek Lasagne. The Moussaka is an eggplant, potato dish that can have ground meat in it (mine was obviously vegan so it didn’t) and then topped with a bechamel sauce, baked and served in a clay pot. Safe to say we were both very happy with what we had chosen. Lew had his with goats cheese and milk because in Greece they don’t have many, if any cows because they struggle with the rocky ground. Therefore majority of cheeses and milks etc are made from goats milk as there is an abundance of them. Safe to say we HIGHLY recommend this place and you should check it out whether your veggie or not!
Tuesday 31st August
The official last day of ‘summer’ here in the northern hemisphere. Goodness where has it gone? Today we were moving on from our Airbnb and heading south to a small town called Kallergiana which is outside the main town of Kissamos. We were very excited about the accommodation we booked because it looked unbelievable on the Airbnb pictures so no doubt it would be even more gorgeous in person. It didn’t take us long to pile our bits into the back of the car and we headed in the direction to Lake Kournas which is the only freshwater lake in Crete! Just a little note on driving in Crete and likely Greece all together. There is a one lane highway with barely any signs to tell you how fast you should be going. Not even Waze could figure it out as it jumped from 90km, 60km, 30km in the space of a few metres. Plus there are speed cameras and speed check zones but the locals fly past you without a blink of a flash so perhaps they don’t even work? Also people expect you to basically drive in the shoulder so that they can pass you - note that its a one lane road with no passing bays so you can often have trucks speeding by maybe on the right side of the road, maybe not. The NZ police would make a killing with this kinda driving if they were to enforce NZ road rules. People who learn to drive here and in countries with similar road behaviours must really struggle to drive places where this is not acceptable driving conduct!
Lake Kournas
First thing to say is parking is very easy. Every restaurant wants you to park by them, eat there, use their boats and sun-beds so at least parking isn’t something to worry about at this small lake. We chose a spot with full shade coverage for the car and also a toilet. The actual lake is very pretty with a muddy bottom and clear blue water. We paid €10 ($16.66 nzd) for use of the sun-beds + umbrella and also the paddleboat for the day! It was such a gorgeous set up and really nice to not have salty water but instead beautiful fresh clear lake water to swim in. What we didn’t realise is that when you take a paddleboat out in the far corner in the mangroves we were astonished to see turtle heads pop up from under the water and swim around the boat! I wondered why there were tonnes of people in that particular area but that explains it. The paddle-boats are perfectly set up for you to hang out on them all day with a swim ladder and sun coverage. Not to mention some good exercise. You absolutely must put this on your list of things to do. I don’t think we have ever seen such small turtles which are Diamondback Terrapin swimming around us. Googling this later it seems there is also water snakes…but thankfully we didn’t encounter any of those!
We left here at 6pm having seen a lot of sun and also not eating anything but snacks! It took an hour to drive to our next Airbnb where our house Electra met us to show us around. WOW, it was sunset and the house “Two olive trees” is literally amongst the fields and fields of olives. Its been very impressively decorated with the smoothest concrete floors we have ever seen and the most beautiful decor. They could certainly charge a heck of a lot more for this place than we were paying. They left us a bottle of local wine, olive oil and some dakos (basically dried bread) which was super sweet of them. It was far too late to try and cook by the time I had unpacked and Lew has demolished the dakos and oil so we headed down into the small town to a place called ‘Pixida’ which was a restaurant on the waterfront. We were so hungry we didn’t even care too much where we ate but this was recommended by the Airbnb so we took a chance with it. I got the fish of the day, we presumed that in Greece everything is line caught by local fishermen as I had mentioned earlier on the trip. That couldn’t be further from the truth when we paid the bill we asked the waitress about class A and B fish. Turns out that class A are from the sea (unsure how it was caught), and class B is actually farmed fish hence why it is cheaper. We were a little blown away that a place such as Greece would have farmed fish?? Anyways it made us feel a little better about the fact that my dish alone of class A fish cost us €29 ($48.30 nzd). FAR too much and I wouldn’t have chosen it if I had known. We have a great kitchen at out accommodation so I think for the rest of the trip we will try and cook with some local produce. We certainly have felt like we have been spending it up!
Wednesday 1st September
Happy first day of Autumn! Although you wouldn’t know it here in Greece with the weather being in the high 20’s. Waking up in our beautiful accommodation to the sun rising above the olive trees as a new day and new month starts. I sat under the two olive trees to write some of this blog as I just love sharing travel tips with you all and it provides a little reminder to me as well as I often forget what adventures we get up to! Both Lew & I chatted to our parents before we gather up our stuff to head to the beach for the day. We stopped into the super market to grab some snacks as we always like taking some food with us so we don’t have to hunt for anything or eat anything crappy provided by small beachside cafes.
Todays beach destination was Falasarna Beach which was quite different to any of the beaches we have previously been to as it has decent surf and very very soft sand. Lew loves to jump waves and body surf them in but i’m not a massive fan of being bashed around by waves. It was a super hot day again and I tuned into a live video by the Zoe covid app about covid and children since it seemed relevant to my current work. Lew did his laps although I don’t know how he managed with such large surf swimming with waves crashing over him.
Dinner tonight was home cooked Mexican and we sat on the rooftop to eat and reflect on the day. It was a simple, very chilled day.
Thursday 2nd September
It was an early morning start as Lew wanted to run before the day heated up. The sun comes up at 8am and soon after that it provides a huge amount of heat until it sets in the evening. He had planned a run in a local gorge just up the hill which involves a twisty winding gravel road in the middle of nowhere. I went for a wander up the gorge whilst Lew did a 13km hill run which involves a lot of goats (including a dead one), rocks and many stray dogs! He was rather sweaty and hot by the time he made it back and I had parked the car in the shade to finish up by book waiting for Lew. It was so calm and quiet in the valley I could hear Lews running shoes on the road and knew when he was close by.
The beach of the day is Balos! This is one a lot of people have recommended to us and is on the must do list with ferrys leaving from local towns or the options to drive out there and walk in. We of course decided to make the 50 minute drive in there which involves a €1 pp entry fee into the national park and a very very rocky dusty road for 7km. There were cars all down the road 1km + from the actual entrance into the beach walk and others had told us to keep driving as there is a carpark right at the end often with space. We were feeling a little smug when we snagged ourselves one of the many spots in the main carpark thankful we weren’t walking down the dusty road like most others had done. It was free also, although we were willing to pay so we didn’t have to walk! Then came the hike in. It was far easier than what we had walked into Seitan Limania but took a good 25-30 minutes with a lot of people making the same journey in. It’s all downhill on the way in which is actually easy although you still need to make sure you have decent shoes that can handle dust and lots of stones. We did see numerous people hiking in cute outfits just to get that special photo and they had totally ruined their white sneakers. The view down to the beach is UNREAL. It’s probably the best view you will get of the light blue lagoon, many beach umbrellas, a couple of large ferries and a lot of little black dots of people. It says not to take a beach umbrella down here, we didn’t understand this as sun safety is paramount to us :P So we took ours anyways. We learnt the hard way when we set it up in the wind with rocks in a very sturdy base but despite this it took off down the beach hitting about 5 or so people as I sprinted after it. Slightly embarrassing…
When we made it down to the beach we realised the lagoon was only as deep as your waist so wasn’t ideal for swimming. It had a slight sulfur smell to it as well so we walked all the way around to the main beach over the rocks to where majority of people were. This was hands down the most filthy beach we had come across in all of Crete and possibly Europe so far. There was oodles of plastic waste and micro-plastics in the small rock-pools. We even found face-masks and lollipop sticks floating out in the water. Cigarette butts and bags and bags of rubbish was all you could see if you looked beyond the many instagram posers. Lew wasn’t impressed at all as we watched numerous couples pose in seductive poses having turned up with hair and make up done. We swum and stayed for a little bit as it didn’t make sense to make the hike back up in the heat. These sorts of experiences makes us appreciate NZ beaches and often how remote and clean they are in comparison. It can also make us feel embarrassed by human behaviour and how we can choose to treat such a gorgeous place with such disregard.
Eventually we made the very hot hike back up the hill speeding past everyone including a poor old man sitting down on the ground which looked rather pale. We both offered our help, suggestions and water but they wernt’t required so we carried on. It was 5pm when we started the drive back down and out of the National Park. Lew was starving so we stopped off at a local souvlaki place which had basically no vegetarian options. Instead they used the vegetarian burger patty as the filling for the souvlaki. Lew was not impressed and certainly doesn’t recommend you give it a go so I wont mention the name of it.
For dinner I cooked an orzo and roast veggie pasta and we again sat upstairs and watched the sun setting before coming inside to eat some watermelon and have a cuppa before an early night.
Tomorrow we would be hiking the famous Samaria Gorge which meant and early start and some planning in regards to what food we would be taking with us.
Friday 3rd September
The alarm went off at 5.50am and it was pitch black outside. We had to be at the tour operators office by 7.10am to catch the bus which would take us to the start of the gorge. The gorge itself is in the white mountains and is a well known tourist hotspot as a day hike. The hike itself starts off at 1250m at the Northern entrance by Omalos Plateau and ending at the shores of the Libyan Sea in Agia Roume at a distance of 16km. You only really want to walk down it which means your a little forced into taking an organised tour or trying to figure out the local bus system which we weren’t so keen on! We booked with Strata Tours which cost €30pp ($50 nzd) and doesn’t include the ferry for the end of the trip which is €17pp ($28.30 nzd) and entrance to the national park at another €5pp ($8.30 nzd). It adds up but we were told that it was worth it. The drive up to the start was a very windy hour and a half that would make anyone who doesn’t usually get car sick perhaps a little nauseated. We were looking forward to launching into the hike but as soon as we arrived in the carpark another tour guide came over to say the gorge was closed due to high winds and associated fire risk. Greece had been suffering with terrible fires this summer but it was a shame the authorities hadn’t alerted the tour operators to save all of us wasting our time coming up. The tour company were fine refunding us all but we had wasted 3 hours driving by the time we reached the house again. I guess you could say it was a free sight seeing tour?
Elafonisi Beach
We decided to make the most of the day by eating lunch at home and then heading out to Elafonisi Beach which is one of the top beaches to visit in this area. It was an hour drive south to the costal peninsular which is an internationally classified nature reserve. It looked nothing of the sort with its rows and rows of beach chairs, umbrellas, half naked people smoking and using single use plastic. It was a touch better than Balos but not far off being just as bad. In 2014 this beach was named one of the top 25 beaches in the world which transformed this idyllic quiet spot into the tourist hotspot it is today. It is famous for its incredibly soft sand with a pink tinge, calm shallow lagoon waters and amazing wind surfing just outside the sheltered bay. According to some sources online Elafonisi can be very very pink but it depends entirely on the wind, motion of the tides, the season and microbes. We unfortunately had a slight tinge of pink but id imagine that would be expected with the amount of people visiting the beach in the summer months. We found a spot with some marginal shade under some unused sun umbrellas (yes thats how desperate we were) as the hiring cost of the umbrellas + chairs was far too much and also meant you were in the sea of many many people. We find people often smoking constantly throughout the day which drives us mental so we like to be away from crowds when we can. The water was indeed incredible and warm but it was rather windy and you ended up with sand everywhere. After we sat in the sun and Lew did his swimming for the day we drove around the corner to a beach called Paralia Kedrodasos which was so sheltered and calm with far less people we wondered why we stayed so long at Elafonisi. It is worth a visit but don’t get your hopes up too much that it will look like the Pinterest photos you have been staring at longingly all your life.
In the evening once we had driven back we picked up some snacks from the supermarket and I threw together a vegetarian version of a souvlaki since the Greeks don’t seem to be able to do such a thing. We found some wraps and some plant based Yerros (basically the vegan version of the meat that comes off a spit), tzatziki and made a salad with creamy avocados and tahini. It was fabulous and exactly what we should have been cooking!
The other MUST do activity is something that is on the way to Elafonisi Beach. It is a famous olive wood craft store with an owner that looks like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. The shop is like nothing you have ever seen in your life. He has all sorts of wooden plates, bowls, sculptures, xmas decorations meaning your bound to find something you like. We took ages choosing out a pair of salad spoons, a cute bowl and a xmas decoration because we wanted the wood and grains to match. Truth be told iv been wanting some beautiful wooden salad spoons ever since we came to Europe and I often find them in tourists shops, but I was pleased I managed to hold out until now as these are worth it! This old fella wandered around the store smoking, asking us questions about where we had come from. He knew all about the Kiwis that died in the war here, the All Blacks and the Lord of the Rings. When we finally came up to pay he joked that the xmas decoration was the most expensive item we had chosen. That alone is €29 ($48 nzd) and the rest was free. He even wanted to find us some better versions of what we had chosen as he didn’t think it was his best work. He also threw in a love heart candle holder which was sweet of him. Now came the most memorable part, the packaging. He wanted to know our initials and also our favourite colour. He set about in his own world creating a one of a kind carry bag with his staple gun, scissors, pinking sheers and coloured paper. He wrapped up our items with bubble wrap throwing in a handful of colourful sweets into the mess. The bag was green with red accents and even had our initials at the top of it. In the bag he put our bits as well as another handful of sweets, a couple of large pieces of snapped cinnamon sticks (for the smell he declared!) and some business cards. It was the coolest thing ever and you can see a photo of it below. He was clearly on island time and didnt care that anyone was waiting to also pay, it was about the experience for him. Go and check out his shop called Workshop Tsouris in the township called Topolia. I don’t think you will miss it if your driving past!
Saturday 4th
We had a really chilled out morning unsure of where to go since we had gained an extra day with the gorge tour being cancelled. We often chat to our parents in the morning and catch up on lockdown life in NZ. They have had a significant outbreak of the Delta covid variant and NZ has a zero covid policy hence the entire country is in a strick lockdown. Iv lost track of how long it’s been but our parents are bored which often means we have far more frequent conversions with them and they are living through us travelling in Greece. I also had to make sure we had all our covid requirements to enter back into the UK. This including completing a passenger locator form and a remote antigen test (aka a lateral flow). The lateral flows cost us £30 ($58.30) each which we had to take within 3 days of returning to the UK and then also a day 2 swab which cost us around £35 ($68 nzd) each. Because we are both vaccinated we don’t to quarantine when we enter back into the UK but still have to complete these swabs. Iv heard from friends that often the swabs dont come back for many many days so it feels as though your really paying for nothing. We used the company Expert Medical to get our day 2 swabs as that was the cheapest we could get and then Project Screen by Prenetics for out remote antigen tests and that was a very easy reliable process.
Viglia Beach
This is a small beach just outside of the town of Kissamo which was actually super lovely and uncrowded. It had beautiful soft golden sand and cheap sun loungers at €4 ($6.70 nzd) for the day. We spent the afternoon here sheltering behind other deck chairs to get away from the persistent wind Greece is experiencing right now. The water seemed lovely as well until Lew made me put goggles on and the thousands of small micro plastics floating around in the water became clear as day. It’s not something you would notice looking at the water from the beach. Small fish were eating a plastic bag and it dawns on you a little that we then eat those fish and ingest plastic. What a sad world we have created. Aside from this we had a pleasant afternoon close to home with little crowds.
We left early evening as Lew was keen to do a run up one of the gorges we drove through yesterday but it had to be when the sun went down or else it would be far too hot. We swung through home to grab our running gear and dump our wet togs on the line and started the drive. A closed road put us behind time and it became a little bit like a race to catch the last of the sun. We were up the top of Milia which is a mountain town for the sun setting across the land below us that we could see stretching out to the ocean. The track was the perfect flat running track that wound itself around the side of the mountain with the most spectacular views. Lew knew it would be dusk until 8.15pm so we had to cut the run short and turn around from scaling to the top of the mountain. We reached the car in pitch black having timed the run perfectly and still managing to do 8km.
We drove home in the dark and quickly prepped some salad and falafel for dinner. It was our last night after all so we needed to use up what we had in the fridge.
Sunday 5th
Today we were leaving paradise but in fact we were ready to leave or to at least move onto a new adventure. Checkout time was 11am so I had plenty of time to prep some food for the day as well as pack up all the bits and pieced we had scattered around the place over the last 5 days. We said goodbye to our lovely host Electra and made our way to some special memorials whilst chatting to our fathers back in NZ as it was Fathers Day.
Maleme
This is a place that probably not a lot of tourists come as we are taught about WW1 in Gallipoli but not WW2 in Crete involving many Kiwis including the 28th Battalion which was all Maori. Lew had been researching the history of Crete so we knew this had to be a place we paid our respects to.German Military Cemetery of Maleme looks over the military airport in which German paratrooopers flew down to capture from the Allies in 1941 and is where over 4,000 graves are. It was noted that it was not known whether these men buried were those who committed war crimes or those who were just young boys born at an unfortunate time between WW1 and WW2 who knew nothing but war. There were many graves of German men ages between 20-25 who would possibly be alive still to this day. It really makes you grateful for the world that we have been so privileged to grow up in without such warfare. A map of Crete showed highlighted different townships that were massacred by German soldiers with innocent civilians being killed. A German photographer even took pictures of such events which is like nothing you have seen before. One of the more famous villages is Kondomari which we didn’t visit but the entire situation reminded us of Oradour-sur-Glane which was a French village that was also massacred by the Germans and was an awful place to visit. I would imagine Kondomari would be similar.
Nearby there was also a Minoan tomb called the Tholos Tomb of Maleme which we were able to walk to and this tomb was revealed and looted in the 20th century. A bomb in WW2 caused a partial destruction of the roof and chamber which allowed it to be rediscovered. It dates back to the Late Minoan II A-Bera age which is 14-13th BC. A time I cannot even imagine existed.
Suda Bay War Cemetery
The next stop was easily the most Kiwi soldiers remembered overseas that I have ever seen. We havnt been to Gallipolo yet but this battle in Crete was almost like the Gallipoli of WW2 but its not a place I ever knew existed. Although if you are a New Zealander and visit Crete then you really must come here to pay your respects. This cemetery contains all the Commonwealth soldiers who lost their lives in Crete in 1941. There was 32,000 commonwealth soldiers in Crete, 18000 of then were evacuated, 12000 were taken prisoner by the Germans and 2,000 killed. Of that 2,000 there were 446 New Zealanders which is a rather large number considering the size of the army’s we sent across. Thats not even including the 700+ unnamed troops buried there which could also be Kiwis. I cant imagine what it would have been like for those young men to cross the seas to a foreign country where they don’t speak your language and fight for a cause that was so far away from home. We fought purely for the fact that we were part of the commonwealth. It was sobering as we walked row by row reading familiar last names on beautiful stone graves although many were unnamed. Once again these men may have still been alive today if it wasn’t for WW2 and in a memorial book it mentioned where each man came from and whether he left parents or a widow behind. What a different world we would live in now if all the men of our community were shipped off to fight. Somedays I think we need this reminder of how precious life is and every second above ground we should be thankful. We left feeling a little sad but pleased the soldiers who fought for their future generation were laid to rest in such a gorgeous location.
Next it was time to head to a beach for the last sun and swim we would have until goodness knows when! We parked ourselves up on a beach that was close to the airport so we didn’t have to drive much further. Lew found a beach club where you just had to purchase a drink or food and you could use the sun loungers and umbrellas for free. The was ideal as it was up on the grass so we wernt taking extra sand home in our luggage! When it reached 5.30pm we called it quits and went back to a beach which had a restaurant on the side of it called ‘Patrelantonis’ and Marathi Beach. We had our last Greek meal which was a vegetarian pasta with feta for Lew and some fish for me. Lew interested yet again in where this fish comes from asked the waiter and he said to our disgust yet again that this was farmed fish. We did a little research on this farmed fish business in Greek when we were at the airport and the only fish they catch in the sea frequently is anchovies. They create 60% of Europes production of sea bream and it is eaten locally byb unassuming tourists and shipped off to other countries. It really really makes me question fish at all when I hear this kinda thing and for once in my life I don’t even want to eat fish again. You can catch it yourself or from a local fisherman but its likely to have been eating plastic left in the sea. Or you can eat fish thats farmed and injected with antibiotics plus other chemicals and fed fish food - ground up wasted fish from trawling. Its mind blowing and I dont even thing any of us are really truly aware of this.
Anyways we made it onto the flight which was delayed by half an hour and ended up leaving Chania airport at 11.30pm and would arrive into London at 1.30am. majority of the trains were cancelled so our plan was a little messy at the other end. Probably not a good ides with all this tiredness involved! As it was when we landed we came straight through the e-gates like normal with no one checking any documentation in regards to our passenger locator form, vaccine status or booked swabs. Typical UK! It makes you feel as though you spent the money for no reason. A lot of other countries have free travel for those vaccinated which is something the UK hasn’t done yet despite them having the highest number of covid cases daily. Everyone who arrived on our flight wanted to get a taxi so the Uber prices has been inflated up to £130 ($217 nzd) instead of the usual £40-£60 ($67-$100 nzd). We tried numerous times to book with no luck and thankfully checked the train schedule again and they had put on direct train to London Bridge as the previous one we were trying to catch was cancelled. From London Bridge we then caught a black cab home - my first ever experience with a Black Cab! We managed to get into bed by 4am UK time which was 6am Greek time. Oh boy what a trip. It was so nice to be home and into our own bed.
Trip highlights
Chania - a super adorable city with a lively old town. It was a nice vibe and a good place to base yourself to drive to the close by beaches
Food - To Stachi & Pulses were our fav restaurants! We found a lot of the typical Greek Tavernas sold mostly the same things, be ware of the fish & where it comes from
Best Beaches - Marathi Beach, Agii Apostoli, Falasarna. Balos & Elafonisi Beach are beautiful but perhaps go early in the morning to avoid the crowds
Workshop Tsouris - must see wood carvings!
Samaria Gorge - we obviously didn’t get to go but it was highly recommended!
